1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for a personal computer, specifically relates to a program selection driving device of a personal computer, and a selecting signal input device therefor, capable of executing and terminating a predetermined program, installed in advance at user's option, simply using a corresponding program selecting button and a remote controller established on an outside of computer.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As personal computers have been distributed widely and rapidly and various works are processed through the personal computer, lots of computer programs have been applied increasingly.
In a common personal computer, executable programs are being stored at a hard disk. A user should search for a directory of a specified program first and then access the directory to execute the corresponding program.
Accordingly, in the conventional computer devices, a user has difficulties in executing a program he or she wants, in case the user lacks understanding of the computer. Besides, even in case of a skilled user, it is a trouble to repeat the operation process whenever the user executes programs.
In due consideration of the above matters, the Korean Patent Application No. 95-727 has proposed a program selection driving device for executing a specified program simply by operating a corresponding button.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the program selection driving device described above, in which reference numeral 1 denotes a button panel, established on an outside of computer, having a plurality of program selecting buttons.
In the figure, a button signal processor 2, for processing button signals inputted from the button panel 1, includes a button signal detector 2a detecting the button signals, data memory 2b storing the button signal from the button signal detector 2a, an interrupter 2c generating predetermined interrupt signals corresponding to the button signals and an input/output port 2d inputting and outputting data through the data memory 2b.
And a main board 3, executing corresponding programs based on a predetermined input signals inputted from the button signal processor 2, includes an input/output device 3a, connected with the input/output port 2d of the button signal processor 2, for inputting and outputting data through the data memory 3a, and a central processing unit (CPU) 3b for executing corresponding programs by reading out data from the input/output device 3a.
According to a program selection driving device in the above configuration, when a user presses down a specified button of the button panel 1, a predetermined level signal corresponding to the button operation is forwarded to the button signal detector 2a of the button signal processor 2, then a button signal corresponding to the level signal is outputted from the button signal detector 2a and stored at the data memory 2b. This way, when a button signal is stored at the data memory 2b, the interrupter 2c detects the button signal and then outputs a predetermined interrupt signal.
Meanwhile, the CPU 3b of the main board 3 reads out the button signal from the data memory 3b through the input/output device 3a and input/output port 2d of the button signal processor 2 and executes a corresponding program.
According to the configuration described above, the user can execute a desirous program, installed in advance, simply by operating a specified button.
However, there are some problems in the configuration described above of the program selection driving device as follows;
That is, as various programs are provided with the personal computer for user's end and the programs were set fixedly to corresponding program selecting buttons respectively in the personal computer applying the program selection driving device, a user who lacks understanding of a personal computer can utilize only a few specified programs he or she understands.
Especially, the program selection driving device cannot register a new program to a certain program selecting button or even change a selected program corresponding to a program selecting button at user's option, whereas new versions of computer program are presented generally as time goes by.
Accordingly, the conventional program selection driving device cannot substantially serve the user lacking in understanding of the personal computer, nevertheless it is originally developed for those users.
Furthermore, since the program selection driving device executes selected programs using interrupt signals and the number of available interrupt is limited in a common CPU and this interrupt function is used for the other purposes as well, the conventional program selection driving device for a personal computer limits the number of available program using program selecting buttons to only one or two, which causes some problems in applying it to a personal computer device.